An Ayrshire Postcard Album by Frank Beattie

An Ayrshire Postcard Album by Frank Beattie sets out to illustrate
Ayrshire's past with a
collection of rare postcard views, many from the author's personal collection,
interspersed with a number of more recent shots, for example of the plaque at
the Electric Brae or the
ferry at
Largs.

The subject matter addresses three main themes. Many of the
postcards simply show villages and towns in
Ayrshire at the moment the
photographer turned up to take the photograph that subsequently became a
postcard. The views are not dated, but most appear to be from the early 1900s
or late 1800s, and the thing that connects many of them is just how traffic
free they are. A horse drawn coach is progressing through the main street of
Ballantrae, and an early motorised coach is pulling up at a bus stop in Dalry,
but many of the settlements shown are empty save for pedestrians: a lost world
indeed! For us the most striking image is of horse drawn coaches passing along
Kennedy's Pass, alongside the coast in
South Ayrshire.

The second main theme is illustrated by old postcards of particular
points of interest, such as Kilochan Castle,
Culzean Castle,Crossraguel Abbey or
Alloway Kirk. These are
especially fascinating where the building shown is no longer standing, such as
at Brisbane House, near Largs. The
book's third theme comes from illustrations of memorials to famous residents of
Ayrshire, such as
Robert Burns, Jean Armour,
or William Wallace: or
the statue of an Ayrshire
miner at Muirkirk. The book is arranged alphabetically, and its real joy comes
from the repeated discovery as you browse through of unexpected takes on places
which in many cases look very different today, while the extensive captions
help set what you are looking at in context.